An estimated twenty-eight million people in the United States are hearing impaired. More than three million Americans are estimated to have a best- corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or worse. The combination of increasing prevalence of visual and hearing impairment with age and the rapid increase in the proportion of Americans aged 65 and older will lead to a steady increase in the number of sensory impaired individuals in this country. Despite the growing importance of hearing impairment and visual impairment as a public health problem there has been relatively little research on the epidemiology of these conditions. This study will: 1) estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment and visual impairment as well as the prevalence of both sensory impairments among adult African- Americans, Cuban-Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Whites; 2) examine the influence of these conditions on the health and mental well-being in these groups; and 3) examine the influence of these impairments on change in functional status and risk of mortality. Data for this project are derived from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES), the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (NHANES I), and the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Surveys (1982-1984, 1986, 1987 and 1992), each of which were conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Data on sensory impairment includes: ear examination, pure audiometry, speech audiometry, ophthalmologic examination, visual acuity testing as well as self report measures of visual and hearing impairment. Measures of functional status include: activities of daily living, health care facility stays, well- being,m depression and self-rated health. Analyses will be conducted separately for males and females within the five racial/ethnic groups. Because of the complex multi-stage sampling design used in the surveys, analyses will be performed in three stages: 1) Ignoring both the sampling weights and the design effect; 2) Incorporating only the sampling weights; and 3) Incorporating both the sampling weights and the design effect. This project will provide a comprehensive, integrated analysis of these NCHS studies leading to significant advances in our understanding of the epidemiology and influence of visual impairment, hearing impairment and multiple sensory impairment on functional health status in adults.